Forum:Welcoming editors
Okay, so I'm seriously considering disabling the automatic welcoming of users, because on vandal edits and people whose first edit is fancharacter stuff, it basically says, "Hi, thanks for doing nothing useful!" The followup question is then whether we want to create a welcome template that we can place on talk pages to say hi properly. Here's FFWiki's, which we don't have to imitate, obviously, I'm just using it to illustrate what I mean. The upper one is how it appears on registered user talk pages, and the lower, IPs. But yeah, I really think we need to consider disabling the automatic welcome, and start welcoming people manually. The idea being that we notice new users when they make edits, ideally constructive ones, rather than the system noticing them and welcoming them regardless of edit quality Sounds like a good idea. It also sounds like we're saying to vandals: "Hi, thanks for wrecking the wiki!" I'm thinking an image of John for the template, but I dunno. Per Ankh ED 18:21, June 5, 2012 (UTC) But we already have John on Template:Merge but I guess that doesn't matter. Maybe stoned Gamzee? W/e, I like the FFWiki's, due to not having the first edit thanks, though I also like the idea of just welcoming people manually, but I like the idea of removing the welcome template. Chezrush 19:14, June 5, 2012 (UTC) :We don't exactly have John on that. It's a WV quote, and John merely appears in the image, he isn't the "representative" so to speak. Nonetheless, I think Jade may be a better character for this anyway. Bear with me... *searches for quotes* :Okay, very basic initial design idea, thoughts? :I like the idea, though maybe we can use a little bit more of Jade's colors (blue or green) on the outline or background, though without it looks great too. This may be the wrong forum, but can we also remove Template:Welcome and Template:WelcomeIP, because they have absolutly have no use and have been used for vandalism several times. Chezrush 19:23, June 5, 2012 (UTC) ::I considered the blue... so let's try the one from her shirt. Opinions on this? ::EDIT CONFLICT: Yeah, those'll be removed if we go ahead with the de-automation. Or rather, Welcome will be replaced with this, and WelcomeIP... well, we'll see. I'm not sure what to do with a template for IPs Maybe something like this, referencing either one of the many times "Enter name:" is used (I like ), or either or introductory paragraphs. -- 20:02, June 5, 2012 (UTC) (Neumannz (TALK)) :Sounds like a good plan to me! Per Ankh ED 23:35, June 5, 2012 (UTC) ::Hmm, I'm not sure. Generally we encourage IPs to register, but using the "enter name" schtick kind of comes across more as insisting that they do. Maybe that's just me. But yeah, we can consider it as a possibility, at any rate Just to clarify, my second suggestion is some form of the line "Though it was thirteen years ago he was given life, it is only today he will be given a name!" --Neumannz (talk) 02:49, June 6, 2012 (UTC) :So something like this, but probably change the colors to something different. -- 19:02, June 14, 2012 (UTC) Same as using the blue from Jade's shirt, changed it to slime ghost green. Also shuffled the row/colspans around a little. Barring further suggested alterations to the IP template, I'd say these designs are fine. We just need to decide on the text to use on them :Like the idea, but it is coming out as a purple text rather then blue. Maybe flip the colors so it's blue background and green borders? --Chezrush 11:29, June 15, 2012 (UTC) ::If you're referring to the links, that's standard. Purple links are pages that you've visited before. But that's easily remedied :No I mean the "What will the name of this young man be?" I don't think it's a link. Chezrush 12:03, June 15, 2012 (UTC) ::...that would be black. Because it's narrative text, not John talking Let's disable the auto-welcome now. It needs to go. Per Ankh ED 02:01, June 17, 2012 (UTC) :Okay, I've disabled it. At least, I think so, been a while since I last had to alter those settings on a wiki. But I think I've done it right, and we'll soon find out. :It does mean we need to get a move on sorting out what we want to say on these templates though ::Added text. Any other suggestions before I create the templates? :::Do you want to add a signature to it? -- 20:09, June 20, 2012 (UTC) ::::Not as part of the template itself, no, but the user placing it should sign Yes, but do you want them to be able to sign inside of the template, or just awkwardly afterwards. -- 21:31, June 20, 2012 (UTC) :All things signed should have timestamps. However, I know of no way to build a timestamp into a template (believe me, I've tried quite a few methods). Therefore there's going to be a manual part of signing however we arrange it. And besides, I think most users will find it more natural to add their signature than to remember that the template does it and to use it to sign in a different and less familiar manner ::Allow me to redirect your attention to this one again; the sig is the first and only parameter. -- 21:52, June 20, 2012 (UTC) :::I don't see any reason to build the sig into the template, and building it in like that is especially unappealing to me. The template is in some sense "in character", especially with the quote at the top, so the "out of character" user sig should be separate. And leaving the template on the page is like leaving a message, and thus the sig goes at the end, not inside it. Yes, we could build it in. But leaving it separately is perfectly workable, and more to the point, building a parameter in makes the template more complicated than it needs to be. Not much more, but still more. All of our other templates – warnings and suchlike – are parameterless and signed after; why should this be different? And no, we are not changing the other templates ::::Alrighty. -- 22:15, June 20, 2012 (UTC) Okay, last call for feedback. If there's no further input, I'll implement the templates in the next day or two :Done and dusted. I would suggest that we don't immediately try to retroactively plaster it on everyone's talk pages. Just start using it from now on. And remember, preferably use it for people who have actually done something useful, not vandals or people who are just making fan characters The green text is not readable against the blue background without the shadow. --'Neumannz, [[User talk:Neumannz|''The Dark Falcon]]' (Other Talk) 23:33, June 29, 2012 (UTC) :Well... if there's no shadow, the viewer needs to stop using a shitty browser. We have other templates where the text will be totally unreadable. It's kind of just tough luck if anyone can't read the text. It's not like the quotes are ''important, they're a cute extra; the important text is all readable